Brainjour

Justin Kerby

India – Day 8, Jaipur

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Today was hectic – but so is India. We woke up at 5 am to meet our tour in the Pink City. This morning we went on a bike tour of Jaipur, and while we were 30 minutes late due to our hotel not allowing tuk-tuks to enter, we made it. It turned out the tour was only us and two French girls.
 
For 4 hours, we cycled 11km through Jaipur. We stopped at the local flower market, at a lassi stand, at a marble carving shop, and at a local resident’s home for some daal and roti. We ended the tour at a factory style milk processing center, where locals brought in buffalo and cow milk and boiled it off for sale at local shops. India loves their milk, and we sampled some of the famous rasmalai after our tour was done.
 
 
 
 
Next, we headed straight to a cooking class we booked with the same company. It was just us and our private chef, Payal for the rest of the day. Payal took us to the local market where we learned about all of the Indian staples including many types of lentils and grains, and then we headed to the vegetable market to decide on what we’d be cooking. We settled on cauliflower, onion, chick peas, tomato, capsicum (green pepper), and a few other ingredients.
 
 
The cooking class was fantastic. Payal showed us how to make a base masala sauce, and we cooked paneer masala. We also made chickpea daal, rice with mustard seed, a spicy cauliflower and pepper dish which was amazing, and even our own chapati. We kneaded the dough and learned how to cook them over the flame which is somewhat of an art form.
 
 
Our day ended after an unsuccessful trip to the train station in Jaipur. We’d booked two tickets that said confirmed on them, but at the station learned we were waitlisted and didn’t make the train. It was the first time on the trip we’ve felt cheated out of something. Instead of heading to Jaisalmer as planned, we’ve now decided to move our camel safari to Jodhpur and spend 3 days in Goa. Our day-of-flight cost only $260, so it’s an affordable detour. Looking forward to relaxing in the sun!
 

You’re Never Too Old to Make It Happen

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never too old

At age 23, Tina Fey was working at a YMCA.

At age 23, Oprah was fired from her first reporting job.

At age 24, Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer.

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.

At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.

At age 37, Ang Lee was a stay-at-home-dad working odd jobs.

Julia Child released her first cookbook at age 39 and got her own cooking show at age 51.

Vera Wang failed to make the Olympic figure skating team, didn’t get the Editor-in-Chief position at Vogue, and designed her first dress at age 40.

Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 40.

Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career and landed his first movie role at age 42.

Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first major movie role until he was 46.

Morgan Freeman landed his first major movie role at age 52.

Whatever your dream is, it is not too late to achieve it.

Never tell yourself you’re too old to make it.

Never tell yourself you missed your chance.

Never tell yourself that you aren’t good enough.

You can do it.

Whatever it is.

I saw the above excerpt on a LinkedIn post but it appears to originally be from Sammy James.

Shoe Dog & Man’s Search For Meaning: Book Review

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I just finished a couple of books within a day of each other (I like reading things simultaneously for whatever reason). Both were very good and very different.

 

Shoe Dog

The first was Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. The author is the Founder of Nike, and the book dives into the long history of the world famous shoe brand. It doesn’t get preachy or try to offer business tips; Phil literally just walks you through his life and the life of his company. There are tons of lessons to learn from Nike’s successes and failures, and the overall readability of the book is fantastic.

Shoe Dog Rating: 5/5

 

Man’s Search for Meaning

Man’s Search For Meaning is a classic from Dr. Viktor Frankl. The author was a survivor of the Holocaust, and his book explores not only the event but also how the outlook of the prisoners affected their longevity.

In the second part of the book, Dr. Frankl explains Logotherapy, which he developed. The main principles of Logotherapy are:

 

  • Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.
  • Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
  • We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stand we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering.

The third point is very similar to what I’ve read from the Stoics like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca – we need to accept the things we cannot change and move forward.

Overall I thought it was a really good read.

Man’s Search For Meaning: 4/5

 

How to Focus Like Warren Buffett

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warren buffet focus

There’s a new Warren Buffett documentary out on HBO. It’s called Becoming Warren Buffett, and it’s essentially a visual biography of the world’s richest man. I’m not sure whether history will remember him as a better investor or philanthropist. He’s an amazing individual.

One of the keys to Buffett’s success is his all-out intense focus. He has tunnel vision for what interests him and doesn’t let the physical world distract him in any way.

There’s a trick to focusing like Buffett. He recommends writing down the 25 things you want in life. They can be things you want to achieve, stop doing, experience – anything. After you’ve completed your list of 25, circle the 5 most important items.

Here’s where things get interesting. Going forward, until you complete your 5 most important items, you’re forbidden to work on any of the 20 items remaining on your list. It’s a great way to develop laser-like focus.

I’m giving it a try and so far so good – will let you know what I find.

Ray Bradbury’s Cautionary Tale

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I just finished reading Farenheit 451, approximately 15 years after it was assigned to me in high school. The book was written in 1953 by Ray Bradbury, inspired by several troubling trends seen by the author. 

The story follows Montag, a fireman of the future, who’s job is to start rather than put out fires. In this dystopian world, books have been banned by the government to prevent stimulation, conversation, and general disagreement. Montag steals books and throughout the novel tries to understand what could be so powerful about their contents. 

Bradbury saw the book burnings in Nazi Germany as extremely troubling, and certainly part of Fahrenheit 451 is a warning for future generations. It’s also a cautionary tale about the shortening (in both length and depth) of literature and news. 

This speaks to today’s media climate more than ever. Social media is one of the first place people consume their news, and media outlets understand that clicks mean revenue. Sensationalistic, short articles are everywhere, and the accuracy to which Bradbury predicted this is remarkable. He speaks of a future where books are shortened to magazines, magazines to digests, and digests to digests of digests – where you can read Hamlet in two pages. This creates a world where no one is informed, bothered, or interesting. 

I love dystopian novels, but that’s not why I loved this book. It’s the relevance of its cautionary narrative that really hit home. A reminder to read in depth, of the value of freedom of speech, and to question majority opinion. 
My Rating: 5/5